No recording at protest? Police may block mobile devices via Apple

No shooting at protest? Police may block mobile devices via AppleApple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem “sensitive”, and “protected from externalities.” ­In other words, these powers will have control over what can and cannot be documented on wireless devices during any public event.

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U.S. allowed Italian kidnap prosecution to shield higher-ups, ex-CIA officer says

U.S. allowed Italian kidnap prosecution to shield higher-ups, ex-CIA officer saysA former CIA officer has broken the U.S. silence around the 2003 abduction of a radical Islamist cleric in Italy, charging that the agency inflated the threat the preacher posed and that the United States then allowed Italy to prosecute her and other Americans to shield President George W.

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Minority Rules: Scientists Discover Tipping Point for the Spread of Ideas

Minority rules: Scientists discover tipping point for the spread of ideasScientists have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion.

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DEA Reportedly Hiding NSA Data Used To Prosecute U.S. Citizens

DEA Reportedly Hiding NSA Data Used To Prosecute U.S. CitizensThe Snowden effect continued to roll today, with fresh revelations detailing how the pervasive surveillance of the National Security Agency (NSA) is in fact linked to domestic criminal prosecution. The idea, and the defense, that NSA activity only impacts non-United States citizens and terrorists, is now utterly specious.

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Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA

Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSAMembers of Congress have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the National Security Agency ( NSA) and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities, documents provided by two House members demonstrate. From the beginning of the NSA controversy, the agency’s defenders have insisted that Congress is aware of the disclosed programs and exercises robust supervision over them.

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The Chemical Industry Divides an Environmental Coalition into Disarray

The Chemical Industry Divides an Environmental Coalition into DisarrayThe environmental movement has been campaigning since 2005 to modernize US chemicals policy, an uphill battle. The greens have done everything by the book – written a model law, built a national grassroots coalition and dispatched lobbyists to Capitol Hill. Now, however, the chemical industry has executed a classic “divide-and-conquer” maneuver, casting the greens into disarray.

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Google ‘Pressure Cookers and Backpacks,’ Get a Visit from the Feds

Google Pressure Cookers and Backpacks, Get a Visit from the FedsMichele Catalano was looking for information online about pressure cookers. Her husband, in the same time frame, was Googling backpacks. Wednesday morning, six men from a joint terrorism task force showed up at their house to see if they were terrorists. Which begs the question: How’d the government know what they were Googling?

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Supreme Court Ethics Act Proposed In Response To Controversial Behavior By Justices Scalia, Thomas

Controversial Behavior By Scalia, Thomas Prompts Call For Ethics ReformA group of congressional Democrats is set to introduce legislation Thursday that would apply stricter ethical standards to the Supreme Court, amid concerns that justices have been engaging in questionable behavior. The proposed Supreme Court Ethics Act of 2013 would subject the justices to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, a set of standards that currently applies to all other federal judges.

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Seven telcos named as providing fiber optic cable access to UK spies

Seven telcos named as providing fiber optic cable access to UK spiesNSA leaks View all… In the latest leak from the documents acquired by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, a German newspaper has published a list of the telecommunications companies that have provided British intelligence with direct access to their undersea fiber optic cables.

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